Boomi announced findings from its Boomi Discovery Report, commissioned by 451 Research. The report, based on perspectives from 650 business and IT leaders across a broad range of industries, outlines how enterprises are using Generative AI (GenAI) to integrate systems and automate processes, and how this has helped their business operations as a result.

Every business is grappling with growing digital fragmentation - from application sprawl and disconnect between departments, to rising costs and skills shortages. GenAI delivers the promise of more efficient and cost-effective operations and improved customer and employee experiences, but only for businesses that embrace it.

According to the Boomi Discovery Report, organizations are seeing GenAI's immediate impact on integration. More than half of respondents (55%) said GenAI was very important for integrating data, applications, and processes. Moreover, the global drivers of AI adoption included increased productivity (which 44% of executives cited), increased sales and revenue growth (40%), and improved customer experience (39%).

However, respondents acknowledged the complexity that's often associated with integration. Many times, integrating data and systems can bring challenges that prompt security and privacy concerns (42%), data quality and availability challenges (42%), and model training, accuracy, and reliability (31%). According to the report, 90% of respondents agree that GenAI has the potential to improve the speed and quality of the development and automation of data, application, and process integrations.

"The ability to seamlessly integrate and automate business processes has long been a top priority for many enterprises," said Steve Lucas, CEO at Boomi. "As organizations scale and continue to navigate unforeseen business challenges, it will become more difficult to keep track of all the data, technology, and processes necessary to achieve business goals. Generative AI can be a powerful tool for today's enterprises, streamlining valuable integration and automation practices and freeing IT teams to focus on innovation. Finding ways to leverage GenAI effectively is the next business prerogative. Boomi is not only helping get businesses ready for it, but also leading the GenAI charge in the integration and automation space."

Additional key findings from the report include:

• IT leaders have more trust in GenAI than business leaders: IT CxOs have a higher rate of trust - 82% either "completely" or "somewhat" trust the output of GenAI, versus 63% of business CxOs.
• Accuracy and consistency are major factors driving trust in GenAI: More than half of business leaders (57%) cited accuracy and quality of AI outputs as a factor in their trust of AI. Just under half (48%) cited consistency and reliability as an AI trust factor.
• Enterprise execs see tremendous value in GenAI: Leaders cited improved process accuracy and consistency (38%), cost reduction (38%), innovation and creativity (34%), streamlined operations (31%), optimized resources (28%), and enablement of competitive advantage (27%) as top potential benefits for leveraging GenAI.
• GenAI has widespread value for integrations: All respondents believe that virtually any type of integration would benefit from GenAI-assisted integration platforms.
  

"Integration and automation are the foundation upon which enterprises build business agility," said Matt McLarty, CTO at Boomi. "However, integrating and automating systems isn't always easy. This is why it pays off to have a unified approach for both. With a unified platform, powered by AI technology, enterprises can gain the advantages of comprehensive integration and automation while mitigating unwanted complexity."

For more information on the 2024 Boomi Discovery Report, click here.